What to do about Springfield, Ohio

Lavender Room
1

It’s been six days since the debate in which Trump made the claim that “illegal Haitian aliens” have swarmed the city, in a number nearing 20,000 and turning their city into a crime ridden midwestern hellscape with cats, dogs, and virgins fleeing for their lives. He has pledged mass deportations of Haitians from Springfield (to Venezuela, but that’s another story) if elected.

I didn’t know the actual facts of what’s been happening there leading up to this claim so I did some reading from various sources. Here’s the gist of it.

  • Springfield had a population of approximately 58,000, mostly white (70%) until the last few years.
  • it has since ballooned by approximately 15,000 additional residents.
  • Legal immigrants, and Haitian nationals here legally, make up the majority of the population increase.
  • In 2023, the Biden administration started a humanitarian parole program allowing eligible Haitians to live and work in the U.S. for two years. He later extended Haiti’s Temporary Protected Status, another program that allows Haitians to legally remain in the U.S. temporarily.

That there are stresses on the school system, health and other public resources, and cultural cohesion should go without saying. Reading through various reports, it does not seem to have caused the kind of conflict or chaos one would expect with this kind of influx of foreign nationals. The cat hanging from a tree story, which sparked the right wing fever dream talking points, has been debunked, but that has added new layers of difficulty for the city.

Here’s Ohio’s Republican Governor addressing these lies and touting the benefits, along with the challenges, of the expanding diverse community. Emphasis on “here legally.”

https://x.com/harris_wins/status/1835333910009438255?s=61&t=nsVXZiCUm1aguM6ABLo7hA

Story debunked:

https://x.com/rpsagainsttrump/status/1835103224790966708?s=61&t=nsVXZiCUm1aguM6ABLo7hA

Since the debate, there have been reports of multiple bomb threats, elementary school closings (plural), colleges (two) moving to online classes due to threats, proud boy gathering, Klan flyer distribution, and cancellation of their annual CultureFest. Mass disruption.

https://x.com/ohchadwick/status/1835693500643311775?s=61&t=nsVXZiCUm1aguM6ABLo7hA

https://x.com/acnewsitics/status/1835057204640334205?s=61&t=nsVXZiCUm1aguM6ABLo7hA

https://x.com/nlanard/status/1835046358488666458?s=61&t=nsVXZiCUm1aguM6ABLo7hA

Setting aside the issue of Trump and Vance amplifying the lie to conflagration level, it’s understandable that longtime residents might not appreciate the massive influx of immigrants at this volume over this short period of time, even if they are here legally and largely contributing to the economy and culture.

What I havent’e learned from reading about Springfield is, what obligation does the federal government have in placing and financially supporting these temporary residents so that population explosions don’t disproportionately affect one city or state. I can tell you that if I were a Haitian living in the U.S. as a legal refugee I would want to live where other Haitians live, so clustering is understandable for every obvious reason. So how do we continue to provide for these individuals who are here for understandable reasons, and legally, while ensuring that we don’t allow established communities to turn into pressure cookers overnight?

2

This has been a recurring issue with any large intake of refugees. They do prefer to congregate. Any time a city or town grows their population by 25% over a year or two it will cause stress, but even more so when that growth is driven by those of a culture different than the town’s inhabitants. It seemed for the Afghan and Ukrainian refugees there was some sort of system where mayors would agree to take on so many at a time. That seems to work for a major evac, but not as well for less organized influx like Haiti or Venezuela. I can also understand the gripes of border towns having to deal with higher proportion of immigration issues.

I would think a solution is similar to how schools are funded. Each refugee or asylum seeker that a city or town houses come with them some federal dollars that goes to the local government. I don’t know if there is currently and such support.

3

One of my sisters lived on the southeast side for 10+ years and I have a nephew who lives 15 minutes SW of there. And I go there semi-regularly.

The state is starting with $2.5M to help with doctors, teachers, etc. Of course that money doesn’t go all that far.

Springfield is not a big city and it has been struggling for years.Long term slide for decades. Which is why the city government says the immigrants are a good thing. The city literally had a program to entice immigrants to come there that started in 2014. Even with the immigrant influx, the population continues to slide.

1960 82,723 5.4%
1970 81,926 −1.0%
1980 72,563 −11.4%
1990 70,487 −2.9%
2000 65,358 −7.3%
2010 60,608 −7.3%
2020 58,662 −3.2%
2023 (est.) 58,082 −1.0%

This is not a cosmopolitan area, so it is not surprising that an influx of immigrants has them thrown off kilter.

I’m not at all averse to the federal government helping make sure infrastructure is helped when immigrants (or any migrant population for that matter) affect a city. Though I do question if there actually IS an issue when I see the population numbers show there has been no actual increase in people there. Translators sure, and I want all immigrants to integrate into society and be able to speak English, so ESL help, etc. as well.

4

Those numbers don’t appear to include the 15,000 immigrants currently living there. 58,000 was the baseline before they arrived.

And what is the policy for after their two year residency expires? Is there a pathway to citizenship or are they renewed on a two year by two year basis?

5

I’m trying to figure out the population. They didn’t just get there last week. Not sure what is going on with that, more digging is needed.

TPS (temporary protected status) can be removed pretty much at any time. And it does not in itself give a pathway to permanent residence. But if you gain another pathway (marriage, labor cert, asylum, …) while you are here you can pursue that.

It is used for situations just like Haiti where shit has hit the fan. And if the situation improves it will be removed and the person will need to return home if they do not otherwise have status. I have no idea what would need to happen for Haiti to get off the list, it is broken.

Some countries have had it for a very long time - Temporary protected status - Wikipedia

6

Let’s reframe the situation, and remove the terms “Haitians” and “TPS” from the story. Springfield, like a lot of Midwestern cities, was losing population (for whatever reason) and some of the industries located there were having trouble finding workers. They seemed to have enough work to do, which means they were exporting their finished goods, right? So word gets out that this nice town in Ohio needs manufacturing/factory/similar workers who are clean, hard-working, legal, willing to be trained, and don’t eat pets. Soon enough, people start arriving. Sure enough, the jobs are good, the town is nice, people are friendly, and this brings in even more workers. A couple of things happen: 1) the employers are pleased with the new, reliable workers, and are also bringing in profits enough to pay these workers, who in turn pay taxes and support the local economy (win-win), and 2) the new workers start to strain the local infrastructure (more school age kids, more social services needed, etc.). Why would the government or any other entity provide the city of Springfield any stipend for these new workers, other than whatever social services and other support they provide to other cities?

It so happens that these new workers are Haitian and have TPS. So what? What if they happen to be a bunch of Amish from Pennsylvania, or from the disabled community where word got around about these great jobs in a nice city that are amenable to disabled workers? Nobody dropped these new workers into Springfield: they came of their own volition to fill an employment gap, and really helped save the city from a slow, painful descent into yet another dying community.

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7

I grew up not far from Springfield. We played them every year in football and thumped them.

Anyway, the cat eating story was from a mentally ill woman in Canton a few years ago.
Springfield mayor has asked Vance/Trump to shut up.

I think Trump is purposefully trying to lose the election or find out if he can start marketing Brawndo to the masses.

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9

What is the issue with schools exactly?

Annual head count for Springfield City School District -

2024: 7,415
2023: 7,227
2022: 7,107
2021: 7,099
2020: 7,716
2019: 7,551
2018: 7,661
2017: 7,759

https://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Data/Frequently-Requested-Data/Enrollment-Data

Doesn’t seem like headcount is still below pre Covid levels.

So what the issue with schools?

10

Between the mayor and city’s accounts, the possible thousands have a perceivable effect in certain places in Springfield. The New York Times reported that around 350 new students, mainly from migrant families, enrolled in local elementary and middle schools. With a language barrier in play, Springfield City Schools said they had to hire six Creole translators to assist, bumping district expenses for the services to $436,000, compared with $43,000 four years prior.

https://www.nbc4i.com/news/local-news/central-ohio-news/what-we-know-about-haitian-immigrants-in-springfield-ohio/

11

This whole thing is racist fear mongers that are pieces of shit.

According to the US census there were a total of 5,264 of Haitian born people in all of fucking Ohio in July 7, 2023.

https://data.census.gov/table/ACSDT1Y2023.B05006?q=Place%20of%20Birth&g=040XX00US39&y=2023

So no, there are not 20,000 Haitians in Springfield.

This is just so many lies to stir up racial fears for political gain. And sadly that is acceptable behavior in this country.

12

The dates I’m seeing cite 2023 as the beginning of the influx. Pretty much every recent report I’ve read cites 12-15k, predominantly but not entirely Haitian.

13

Xenophobia is not new to this country, it’s just been ratcheted up to 10 by Trump & his ilk.

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14

I’m starting to think - The Indigenous People around the Roanoke Colony had the right idea

As did the islanders that Magellan ran into, one hundred years before that

As did the Hawai’ians when Capt James Cook stopped by

Too bad none of these ideas didn’t catch on

If you wanna torment immigrants? Look where WE came from

What’s the saying? If you’re not Native American, you came from a slave, a refugee, or an immigrant

I could be wrong

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The natives couldn’t be wrong, could they?

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16

Well, that takes some key context out of this particular situation, doesn’t it?

This large group of people would not be available en masse and all within a relatively short period of time except for the situation in Haiti and the federal policy for TPS.

It’s a bit like trying to discuss the migrant farm labor issue but saying you have to start by removing the fact that the workers are Hispanic migrants.

I’m not saying it necessarily means a there’s a federal aid solution, but I’m not sure we can try to tackle the issue if we don’t keep those pieces of information in play.

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Why dont you kick yourself out. You’re an immigrant, too.
-Jack White

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Dude … you understand how infrastructure and local taxes work right? You cannot just make schools and hospitals appear out of thin air and pay for them with vapor when your population goes up 30% in a short time.

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Nice track right there - didn’t know that anyone around here other than me listened to Andy’s solo work; thank you

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That would probably explain why I said that money wouldn’t go very far and that I am not averse to the federal government helping, assuming there actually IS a problem.

I have been looking but cannot find updated population figures for the last several years. Facts would be a good place to start and they seem hard to come by. The school enrollment numbers posred above don’t seem to show a 30% jump. But the state and city use numbers like 12,000 to 20,000. Somehow people making up stuff is unhelpful , who could have known?

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